Acquiring Media Art

Pre-acquisition

• What information do I need to make a decision about a possible acquisition?
• How do I anticipate the cost of owning this work?
• What master material and equipment should come with the acquisition?

The focus of the pre-acquisition phase for media art is deciding whether to acquire the work of art. Information gathered during this phase is used to justify the acquisition and to forecast costs, installation logistics, and conservation concerns for future ownership. This information falls into two main categories, conceptual and technical. An understanding of the conceptual and technical elements that comprise the work of art is essential for acquisition consideration, but also to the continued viability and authentic presentation of the work. In reality, there is often little time prior to an acquisition to gather all the information in detail. However, you are aiming to gain a general understanding of the areas outlined below. The information collected during the pre-acquisition phase provides a baseline of knowledge for deeper levels of documentation after the work is acquired.

Get the Details

Once team/resources are established, curator/collector presents the proposed acquisition. The following information may be gathered both internally and externally. Identify one person to be the co-ordinator for this process. In some circumstances, cataloguing the work may begin prior to acquisition (see details in post-acqusition phase). Before proceeding with the acquisition, consider the key questions at the head of each section below.

Glenn Wharton and Peter Oleksik from MOMA NY preview a digital video. Digital image © The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Pre-assessment

During this pre-acquisition phase, there is often limited time to gather important information necessary for making a presentation to a board, committee, or self. The goal at this point is to begin the process of assessment that will eventually lead to completion of structure and condition reports during the post-acquisition phase. At this stage, here are some core things to think about:

• Is this work currently ‘exhibitable’ and can this be sustained?
• Determine the ‘exhibitability’ of the media: assess the playback quality, if the offered format is provided at this stage. From an exhibition history of the provided materials, determine duration of previous display. Make recommendations for preferred media format if different from what is being offered.
• Assess the condition of display equipment offered with the work: how old is the equipment? How many times has it been used/ displayed? Has it ever been serviced?
• Assess the condition of the sculptural elements in the installation.

Costs

In addition to the costs itemized below, there will be long- and short-term costs associated with the care of media art. A cost-assessment worksheet will help to estimate the financial commitment necessary for acquiring the work.

Proceed with acquisition?

Summarize findings and make recommendations for proceeding. Using the information gathered from the assembled team and consultants, the curator/collector determines if the art work is an appropriate acquisition for the collection. If yes, then the curator/collector identifies recommendations to incorporate into the purchase agreement.

• Identify issues for negotiation.
• Specify the preferred preservation and exhibition material required, e.g. master, sub-master, exhibition copy.
• Provide a final equipment list necessary for acquisition and display: what is provided by the seller? What must be additionally purchased?

Pre-acquisition Templates

Acquisition

• What rights do we need to secure as part of the acquisition of the work?
• Do we have what we need for the future conservation and display of the work?
• Can we make copies for exhibition and preservation?
• Does this acquisition warrant the need for formal legal documents?

Contractual documents are required to acquire an artwork. Because of the complexities attached to the bundle of rights being conferred with the transfer of ownership of media artworks, legal documents take on a greater significance than is the case with more traditional works. These documents include a purchase agreement, or a deed of gift, and a copyright license. They specify the terms and conditions of the acquisition and help ensure that all parties understand their respective rights and obligations. The documents can be used among the following parties (which, in any given transaction, may be a museum, artist or artist’s estate, gallery or collector): purchaser, seller, donor, and copyright holder. Templates for the documents are provided here for reference purposes. Depending, of course, on the terms of each transaction, they may be used as a starting point in negotiations.

Guidelines

The accessioning phase lies between formally agreeing to acquire a work and actually being in a position, with everything in place, to accession a work into a collection. It is a moment when you make sure that you have everything that was agreed as part of the purchase or gift. In the case of traditional works of art, for example a painting, this is the moment when you check the painting arrived, that it is the painting you thought you were buying and that it is in the expected condition. The end of this phase is marked by legal title passing to the new owner.

There may be occasions when sculptures, paintings or other types of objects are also included as part of the work. However, for the majority of cases, what you are buying when you buy a media artwork is not a unique material object but rather the means and the rights to be able to display the work, loan it, preserve it and sell it. To be able to enact these rights you will need to be in possession of preservation master material and information about how the work is to be installed.

Accession Templates

In the following templates, square brackets have been used where the information contained within them is optional or subject to change according to the particular circumstances – as well as to comment on particular issues that should be addressed when tailoring this agreement. All square brackets should eventually be removed and the information within them modified or deleted before the agreement is signed. Red bold font is used where the information contained within is optional as it specifically applies to media art.

Because ownership of an artwork does not necessarily include ownership of the copyright to that artwork this document is an authorization from the Copyright Holder to the Owner of a work of art permitting the Owner to, for example, reproduce the work in publications and/or for preservation purposes. This template is an agreement between the Copyright Holder (usually the artist) and the collector (referred to as the ‘Museum’ in the document). It can be used as a general license agreement as well as a document specific to media art.

A document that memorializes the transfer of ownership of a work of art by way of gift. This template assumes a full gift between two parties. It can be adapted to situations where there is more than one Donee or if the gift is fractional.

A contract between the seller of the work of art and the purchaser that controls the terms of sale. This template can be adapted for use in situations where there is more than one purchaser (i.e. a joint acquisition sometimes referred to as a co-ownership agreement and would need to be reviewed with the relevant co-ownership agreement and relevant co-owner(s).)

Before signing the contract, you will have information in hand about the work [refer to Pre-acquisition Guidelines checklist]. You will already have considered the installation details, long-term preservation and exhibition requirements, future technological developments, as well as condition assessment. At this moment you might also wish to secure a Copyright Licence between you, the new owner of the work and the Copyright Holder. Although the artist normally retains the copyright in the work, you may want to secure rights to produce images and copies of the work for a range of purposes from publicity to preservation. Two copies of each agreement document are sent to the Seller for signature. Each party should retain one fully signed original.

Please note the following:

• Affirmation of Title is desirable but not crucial if you have done your pre-acquisition research. You need to assess the relationship with your donor to determine whether to pursue.
• Certificate of Authenticity: if donor is not in possession of, or cannot transfer it, you may need to obtain this document by other means, including contacting the artist, gallery or estate. In some cases there may be a charge for replacing a missing certificate.
• Red bold font is used where artist or artist estate are the donor. If the artist is not the donor, bear in mind that you may need to obtain documents by other means as well as deleting the sections of non-relevance.

Post-acquisitions

The work is catalogued and documented during this phase, and images are created for public release and for internal use. The artist may be interviewed after acquiring the work to answer remaining questions about future conservation and display. Technical and conceptual knowledge about the work is used to create a long-term conservation plan. The media, display equipment, and sculptural components are packed and stored in archival housing in favorable environments for long-term preservation.

• What information do we need to have in place to establish a baseline record and for future record-keeping?
• What is needed to prepare for the future life of the work as part of our Collection?
• How do I prepare for interviewing the artist about the installation and conservation of the work?
• The goal of the post-acquisition phase is to prepare the artwork for long-term preservation and future installation. This includes organizing information about the work in digital and hard-copy format.

Notify artist: All parties must be notified after completing the acquisition process, including the artist and vendor (or donor)